Many mining companies utilize acid based leaching techniques for copper and other potential metals. During this process, unwanted metals, such as iron, leach into solution, therefore, further processing must be employed for iron removal or selective separation of valuable metals. These techniques include solvent extraction, precipitation, and/or ion exchange methods.
Current technologies used for ferric iron removal, such as precipitation techniques, produce large amounts of iron containing sludge and require large amounts of chemicals. For solvent extraction techniques, the raffinate, a liquid steam that remains after the extraction with the immiscible liquid to remove solutes from the original liquor, can easily become contaminated with iron and lower overall removal efficiency. Other ion exchange resins from removal of iron from solutions have been successfully created, however, these technologies utilize phosphonate ligands and have low overall capacities.